When I wake up, I’m strapped to a bed with a sore throat, ragged from screaming, and banging headache. I’ve no idea what day it is.
Or where Jude is, for that matter.
“Where’s Jude,” I croak as the memories come crashing back. After the alarm sounded off, they came to Jude’s room to get me. It took three of them to pump my veins full of sedatives to stop me from tearing them all apart and burning the place down to find him.
The nurse, a silver-haired older woman this time, purses her lips as she shoves another needle full of shit into my arm. She doesn’t look at me once.
Darkness, heavy and suffocating, sucks me under again. When I open my eyes later, the orderly who switched me, the one working for Jordan—Roberts—is wheeling my bed down the corridor.
“Where is Jude?”
Roberts eyes me warily like I’m a dangerous animal. He needn’t worry. I’m strapped to the bed.
“Jude is in solitary.”
“Why?”
He glares at me. “You know why. He killed Bateman.”
I clench my teeth together before I can correct him. It’s obvious. Jude took the fall for me. There are no cameras in the rooms, so it’s Jude’s word against mine. He must have convinced them he killed Bateman and I was just caught in the middle. I don’t know how I feel about that but I can’t just blindly charge in without knowing the facts.
Where are they taking me?
I close my eyes, mainly to block out the overhead lights burning my retinas off. Then I drag them open again, twisting my head to look behind me. The walls are pea green with white doors on either side. There are no cameras. I don’t recognize the corridor. We’re some other part of the facility.
“Where are you taking me?” I look back at Roberts, who sighs.
“Jordan wants you switched, so we’re doing it now before it’s too late.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m not leaving Jude.”
Roberts gives me a sympathetic look. “There’s nothing you can do for him now. He’s gone.”
No. Don’t you fucking say that.
I strain, somewhat hopelessly, against the 4-point hold on the gurney I’m tied to. There’s no way to escape from them. I know this. Dante drilled into me every single way of restraining someone; the way they do it in hospitals is where he got his inspiration from.
“They will reduce you to nothing in their attempt to control you and use everything in their means to do so. If you ever get caught and can’t escape physically, use anything to get free, V. I won’t be there to get you out all the time.”
Dante’s words echo in my mind. I don’t just have my body. I also have my mind. If Roberts takes me back to the main part of the facility, I’ll lose my only connection to Jude. I’ll never see him again.
They’ll bury him here.
Like a vice, the rage grips my chest, making my heart hammer and my breathing ratchet up a notch. I struggle again. It's no use. These restraints are made to hold down someone a lot bigger than me. I just don't have the physical strength. Behind me, I can see the connecting doorway approaching. We're almost there.
“I can pay you,” I say to Roberts. He looks down at me, eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“How much?” A grit out. Everyone has a price. Even Roberts. “Just tell me a price and I’ll make sure you get it.”
He grimaces and stops rolling the gurney. “A hundred thousand.”
“Done,” I hiss. “Now, take me back to my room.”
“Your room is a crime scene.”
“Then whatever room they had me in.”